IT IS deplorable that President George W Bush has so publicly announced that America is single-handedly tearing up the Kyoto agreement on reducing greenhouse gases.

This is an initiative which has been carved out over many years. It demands international consensus and co-operation. It is, after all, an issue that affects everyone on the planet.

It is even more deplorable that Mr Bush justifies his decision on economic grounds. He is putting the profits of America's oil companies, who just happen to have given him enormous financial backing during his election campaign, before the lives of millions of people elsewhere. They will continue to suffer increasing numbers of floods, droughts and typhoons. And that includes people in the North-East of England who are still mopping out their houses after this winter's onslaught.

Mr Bush says he is facing an energy crisis in California, but that is largely due to an ill-thought out privatisation and it should not be allowed to damage the world's climate.

And it is quite pathetic to hear his right-wing backers saying that the scientific proof of global warming is incomplete. It may not be 100 per cent, but nearly all the evidence before us at the moment suggests that man's pollution is doing something damaging to the atmosphere. If we don't at least make a start now - and Kyoto did not impose anything that could be called more than a start - it may be too late.

The US is the biggest polluter in the world, pumping out 24 per cent of greenhouse gases. Britain, another serial producer, is fifth on the list, pumping out six per cent.

We rich developed countries have to show that we are getting our houses in order before we can expect the developing countries, who naturally strive to follow our filthy path to prosperity, to change their ways. The Kyoto agreement allowed for that in its second phase.

We in the developed countries have to set an example, especially as our industry has been responsible for so much pollution so far. The example Mr Bush is setting is entirely wrong, and very damaging.

How damaging was shown yesterday in the House of Commons when Tory MP Nigel Evans, in a spectacularly ill-timed and mis-conceived intervention, demanded that Britain followed the US example and put British industry first. He urged the Government to scrap the climate change levy.

Britain's record in cleaning up its emissions has actually been quite good, however much we mock John "Two Jags" Prescott. If Mr Evans's reaction is typical of the way the rest of the world interprets Mr Bush's announcement, then heaven help us all. And our grandchildren.